HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Wildcats run over Bearkats in victory, 64-18

STERLING CITY — After blowing out Garden City 54-6 in the season opener, it would've been easy for the top-ranked Water Valley High School football team to overlook the Bearkats in their first-round playoff rematch Thursday night.

But the undefeated Wildcats don't take any of their opponents lightly.

Water Valley quarterback Kellan Kirkland threw for six touchdown passes, including four to wide receiver Connor Copley, as the Wildcats rolled to a 64-18 mercy-rule win over Garden City in a game decided in the third quarter at Eagle Stadium in Sterling City.

"We knew that they had been a much-improved team," Water Valley head coach John York said after his team moved to 11-0. "They played well the last few weeks.

"They've got a good ball team. We just had to respond and get things rolling. The kids took care of business."

The Bearkats (3-8) stunned the Wildcats by opening the scoring on a 42-yard touchdown pass from spread back Austin Odom to Shawn Walker on Garden City's second play from scrimmage.

But Water Valley answered with a fumble recovery in the end zone by defensive end Colt Riley to take an 8-6 lead at the 5:47 mark of the first quarter.

The Wildcats finished the opening period with a 27-yard TD pass from Kirkland to Copley, followed by a 79-yard kickoff return for another score by Copley.

Kirkland connected with Kade York and Trae Hannon for two more scores, as the Wildcats built a 40-12 halftime advantage and rolled from there.

In a dominating third quarter, Kirkland threw a 35-yard TD pass to Cade Latham and two more TD passes to Copley (33 and 51 yards) for the final margin.

Kirkland completed 13 of 15 passes for 231 yards and the six TDs. He was intercepted once.

Copley caught four passes for 111 yards.

Garden City was successful with its aerial attack, too, as Odom was 12-of-20 for 203 yards and two touchdowns.

But Water Valley's coach said he isn't too concerned about the Wildcats' pass defense.

"We've got to make a few corrections," York said. "We just got back to having everybody healthy, so we've got a few kids that are rusty. It was another good game for us and another good test for us."

Water Valley will play the winner of tonight's Rotan-Throckmorton game next week.

"Both of those teams are very dangerous," York said. "They've got some good skill kids. Whoever wins that game, we've got our work cut out for us for sure."

York said the Bearkats are a much better team than their record would seem to indicate.

"When you get to the playoffs, everybody's good," York said. "Everybody's got potential to do some good things and hurt you.

"We talked about it all week that it's not going to be the same team that we played in Week 0. They've improved a bunch and they got all their kids back healthy last week and gave Rankin a good test early."

The Bearkats definitely had the Wildcats' attention coming into the rematch.

"We knew they were going to come out and be ready to play," Copley said. "The intensity was high. We saw them do that last week against Rankin.

"We knew that we'd have to come out strong because they were going to come out with a lot of emotion and they did. But we wore them down and continued to as the game went on."

The Kirkland-to-Copley combination is lethal for opposing defenses.

"Ever since my freshman year, he's been my main target," Kirkland said of Copley. "He just finds ways to get open and breaks tackles for the score."